What Brain Surgery Reveals about How the Brain Works.
Neurophysiologist William Calvin. He assisted in neurosurgery on a patient named Neil. Neil was to have a portion of his temporal lobe removed to cure his severe epilepsy. But the neurosurgeon, George Ojemann, had to know where to cut. A mistake could cost Neil part of his normal brain function. So, while Neil was awake on the operating table, Dr. Ojemann, probed and stimulated Neil's exposed brain, the whole time carrying on a conversation with the patient. The purpose was to create a detailed roadmap of Neil's brain functioning. Calvin and co-author George Ojemann wrote about this surgical journey in their new book "Conversations with Neil's Brain: the Neural Nature of Thought and Language" (Addison-Wesley).
Other segments from the episode on May 10, 1994
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